Book Notes: Mary Roach looks at space psychology in 'Packing for Mars'

Rae Francoeur

Wednesday

Sep 22, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 22, 2010 at 10:16 PM

If you’ve wondered what it’s really like to be an astronaut — the trials of weightlessness, the miseries of “irrational antagonism,” the hazards of the breakaway effect and space euphoria, vertigo, cabin fever, bone loss, the joylessness of a bacon square, the challenges of waste expulsion, depression, boredom … more than you could have imagined — “Packing for Mars” is the book for you.

“Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” By Mary Roach. W.W. Norton & Co., NY, 2010. 224 pages. $25.95.

If you’ve wondered what it’s really like to be an astronaut — the trials of weightlessness, the miseries of “irrational antagonism,” the hazards of the breakaway effect and space euphoria, vertigo, cabin fever, bone loss, the joylessness of a bacon square, the challenges of waste expulsion, depression, boredom … more than you could have imagined — “Packing for Mars” is the book for you.

Astronauts, beware. We see that you are all at the peak of your game mentally and physically. And it’s also clear that you are stellar specimens, as far as human beings go. But there’s nothing you do that author Mary Roach can’t poke fun at. There are 224 pages and at least a couple of chuckles a page in her new book. As for NASA, a collective smile may be just what that agency needs.

Consider this sign in a NASA building corridor: BLIND CORNER: PROCEED WITH CAUTION. “Perhaps focusing on minor workplace dangers helps space agencies cope with the very major threats they deal with on every mission: explosions, crashes, fire, depressurization,” writes Roach. “Like war, space is a formidable bogeyman that takes its victims no matter how carefully you what-if the situation.”

In the past, Roach’s books have investigated science and the afterlife, cadavers, science and sex. Is nothing sacrosanct?

Space psychology certainly isn’t. Candidates for astronauts undergo intensive scrutiny in order to ferret out those who might run into problems on long, tedious voyages with the requisite moments of brilliance and courage and ingenuity. America’s first astronauts, says Roach, “were selected by balls and charisma.” Former test pilots were naturals. Screening is now an art form. Bad breath, snoring, telltale changes in facial expression or speech patterns are all reasons for rejection. No loose cannons and no irritants in space, please.

Even joy can be a problem. During the first NASA spacewalk Gemini IV astronaut Ed White resisted returning to the space capsule after repeated exhortations from his crew and NASA. “This is the saddest moment of my life,” he says, finally consenting after 20 minutes to come back to the capsule. He must have undergone an episode of “deadly rapture of space.”

The human body does not do well with weightlessness or when excess G forces are applied. We degrade during prolonged spells of weightlessness. Bones and muscles deteriorate because they are not put to use. Weightlessness causes other problems, too. Urine does not collect at the bottom of the bladder as was intended, but spreads itself around. The bladder fills without the usual sense of pressure to the point that catheterization is required to empty it. The problems expelling and disposing of excrement in weightlessness require close to a chapter of utter hilarity to enumerate. Roach proves, for those of us so disposed, that bathroom humor is funny at any age and education level.

Though Roach reveals the astronaut detail by naked detail, we wish these intrepid souls bon voyage — should we proceed with space exploration — with greater admiration than ever. As for Roach, there’s no such thing as “too much information.” Thank goodness.

Rae Francoeur can be reached at rae.francoeur@verizon.net. Her book “Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair” is available in bookstores and online. Read her blog at http://www.freefallrae.blogspot.com/.

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